Who is responsible for peace?

Let’s begin by stating the obvious: Relationships are hard.

Why are they hard?  Because people are flawed, biased toward their own wants and desires.

Even the most introverted of us will admit that eventually they need some person-to-person interaction.  In contrast, our extroverts can’t imagine going more than an hour without interacting with another person.  But engaging in those interactions means that we risk dealing with pain, arguments, uncomfortable silence, offense, hurt feelings, unmet expectations, and plenty of other things we’d like to avoid.

We were made for relationship.  God created humans so that He could have a relationship with us.  We’re also made to connect with each other.  Although sin and selfishness have corrupted these bonds between “us and God” and “us and others”, they have not thwarted our desire for our original design.  But just because we want something, doesn’t mean that we’re necessarily good at it.  We need some guidance if we’re going to make these relationships grow and thrive.

So it comes to no surprise that in his letter to the believers in Rome, the Apostle Paul tells them:

Romans 12:18
If possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.

When we read that verse, it’s easy to nod in agreement.  Being at peace with others is a two-way street, and I can only be responsible for my side.  I can’t force anyone to be at peace with me.  And, let’s be honest, I have a lot of work to do in order to fully apply this verse, long before I expect it from others.

But I like to be practical.  I want to find ways to put the Word of God into practice.  It’s not enough to nod along.  As much as I agree that it’s better for me to live at peace with everyone and that I recognize how it depends on [me]…exactly how can I make this peace happen?

Fortunately, Jesus talked a lot about our relationships with each other.  There are many verses we could look at, but I want to focus in on two of them.

During His Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said this:

Matthew 5:23-24
So if you are offering your gift on the altar, and there you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar.  First go and be reconciled with your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift.

Jesus is quite clear here – if you are the offender, if you caused a rift between you and your brother or sister, then He expects you to go make it right.  Before doing anything else, go fix the relationship.  Even before interacting with God through your gifts, go address the offense. 

A little later, Jesus also taught this to His disciples:

Matthew 18:15
If your brother sins against you, go and rebuke him in private.  If he listens to you, you have won your brother.

Now Jesus is saying if I’m the victim of my brother’s actions, I need to go work it out with him.  Maybe he didn’t realize that he sinned against me.  Maybe he knew exactly what he was doing.  Jesus doesn’t give that kind of qualifier here.  The direction is for me to provide correction and be hopeful that he listens.

When I put these two teachings side-by-side, this is what we end up with:

If I wronged my brother, I need to go work it out with him.
If my brother wronged me, I need to go work it out with him.

To be honest, this doesn’t sit well with me.  It feels like it should be an either/or situation.  So, which one is the right way to deal with conflict between me and my brother?

The answer: they’re both right.

As far as it depends on [me], live at peace with everyone.

There’s this two letter word tucked inside Jesus’ directions, regardless if we’re the offender or the offended – we are to go.  Go to them and work it out.  Go and reconcile.  Go and ask forgiveness.  Go extend the love that God has shown you.  Go and make peace.

Keep Pressing,
Ken

We are family

I grew up in a (mostly) stable home.  We had our ups and downs, and, like any family, there are stories on both sides of that coin.  Overall, though, I know we had it better than many other families.  Us kids knew we were loved and supported.  Additionally, we all understood that our behavior reflected on not just us, but the whole family.  And when things were rough, one thing was for sure…we took care of our issues in-house, as much as possible.

Although Jesus was sinless (and therefore the perfect son and brother), did you know that at least for some period of time, His family didn’t fully support His ministry?  They believed that His actions were causing trouble – for both Himself and for them.

Mark 3:20-21
Jesus entered a house, and the crowd gathered again so that they were not even able to eat.  When His family heard this, they set out to restrain Him, because they said, “He’s out of His mind.”

Did you see that?  Jesus’ family…set out to restrain Him.  Not exactly the picture you expected of Jesus’ mother Mary, right?

They were concerned about Him and His well-being.  It’s understandable.  After all, Jesus was doing something new.  He was leading and teaching in ways that upset the cultural and political norms.  And we all know that “new” isn’t always received as “better” by those who lives are wrapped up in the norms.

This family intervention couldn’t have been a spur-of-the-moment decision by Mary and Jesus’ siblings.  They must have talked about Jesus’ teachings, growing fame, and the all the potential repercussions for Him and for them.  They likely debated over the best way to handle it and approach Jesus, but it was at this moment they decided to act.

His family probably thought they arrived just in time, because while they were on their way, some scribes from Jerusalem were making some condemning allegations against Jesus.  In order to explain how He performed miracles and spoke against Israel’s religious teachers, the scribes accused Jesus of being possessed by Beelzebul (i.e. – Satan).  Can you imagine the shame and difficulty that kind of accusation would have caused Jesus’ family?  After walking into this situation, Jesus’ family was ready for Him to pack up and leave with them.

Mark 3:31
His mother and His brothers came, and standing outside, they sent word to Him and called Him.

What kinds of things do you think they were saying?

Jesus.  Jesus!  It’s time to come home.  Stop making crowds.  They’re dangerous and the Romans will get suspicious of you.  Please come out and go home with us!

Jesus!  The religious leaders will remove our family from the synagogue if you keep challenging their authority and making them look bad.  Please come home so we can talk about this as a family.

Jesus did not hear their pleading calls.  It’s entirely possible that He could not hear them due to the size of the crowd.  Somehow, however, they got word to Him inside the house:

Mark 3:32
A crowd was sitting around Him and told Him, “Look, your mother, your brothers, and your sisters are outside asking for you.”

What’s the correct response here?  Should he tuck tail and leave with His mother and His siblings?  However, Jesus was not a small child for them to lead around.  He was a full grown adult…a man with a God-given purpose, even if His family didn’t understand:

Mark 3:33-35
He replied to them, “Who are My mother and My brothers?”  Looking at those sitting in a circle around Him, He said, “Here are My mother and My brothers!  Whoever does the will of God is My brother and sister and mother.”

In the same way Jesus could tell His mother at twelve “I must be in My Father’s house” (Luke 2:41-50), He now tells His immediate family that He must be about His Father’s business. 

This wasn’t so much a rebuke of His blood-relatives, but Jesus is showing His priority to those who are actively seeking Him.  Those in the crowd that Jesus taught were more than just curious, random strangers…often the crowds that followed Him were those who believed in Him and wanted to learn more from Him.  They were the larger group of disciples that the twelve were chosen from. 

With His declaration “Here are My mother and My brothers!”, Jesus shows that He values them as much as He does His natural-born family.  Jesus is committed to them because they are committed to the same thing He is – doing the will of God.

Maybe you didn’t grow up with the kind of family you wanted.  Maybe your family doesn’t understand this “Jesus thing” that you have and are waiting for you to “snap out of it” and come back to them. 

You might even be feeling lonely, wishing you had a mother or a brother or a sister…but never forget that once you accept Jesus’ free gift of eternal life, you are adopted into His family.  And you have connections with more people from more places and backgrounds than you’ll know what to do with.

We won’t always get along.  We won’t always agree.  But as we continue to sit at Jesus’ feet, we’ll begin to understand how close this family really is, and that we’re most united when we have the same goal…doing the will of God.

Keep Pressing,
Ken

Instruction by embarrassment

When I was in my early 20s, I was part of a men’s group that met weekly and was led by one of our church’s staff pastors.  I was, by far, the youngest man in the group…but they never treated me as less than because of my age.  We would hang out before starting the study discussion, and this particular time I was talking with a guy named Mike.  When he asked me how my week had gone, I answered, “Well the damnedest thing happened to me today…”.  That wasn’t a slip of the tongue, either.  At that time, I was very loose with how I phrased things.  I believed that I was old enough to talk however I wanted.  And when you’re among other Christian brothers, who “understand”, it’s ok to speak a little rougher than you would in public, right?  Perhaps I also wanted to impress him a little, thinking that I should add some joking emphasis to what I was about to say. 

Before I could finish my sentence with what actually happened to me, Mike put his hands up and quickly said “Hold on, hold on, hold on.”  And then, to my shock, he raised his voice so the entire group could hear and said, “EVERYONE, I HAVE AN ANNOUNCEMENT TO MAKE: ‘the damnedest thing’ happened to Ken today.  I suggest we all listen to what he’s about to say.”

All the eyes in the room were suddenly staring at me.  Everyone was silent and waiting for me to speak.  I felt the red quickly climb up my neck and onto my face.  I wasn’t mad…I was embarrassed, because I knew that what I had planned to say wasn’t ANNOUNCEMENT-worthy.  It was, in the grand scheme of things, a small thing that didn’t qualify for the title of “the damnedest thing”.  I quickly mumbled to the group that it wasn’t a big deal and I had nothing to say.  Everyone shrugged and went back to their conversations.  I don’t think Mike said anything else about it.  Honestly, he didn’t have to.  I learned my lesson.

Did you know that Jesus once used this same technique to teach an important lesson to His disciples?

Mark 8:27-30
Jesus went out with His disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi.  And on the road He asked His disciples, “Who do people say that I am?”

They answered Him, “John the Baptist; others, Elijah; still others, one of the prophets.”

“But you,” He asked them, “who do you say that I am?”

Peter answered Him, “You are the Messiah.”  And He strictly warned them to tell no one about Him.

Don’t miss this…By not correcting Peter’s statement, Jesus confirmed to the disciples that He was the Messiah.  That was earth-shattering, front-page headline news.  While Jesus’ warning for them to tell no one that He was the Messiah may have frustrated the disciples, they could certainly understand it.  After all, Jesus wanted people to come to that conclusion on their own.  Also, Jesus had not given a specific timeline as to when The Kingdom that He had taught about was going to start; so the disciples could rationalize that it just wasn’t time yet for the big “Messiah announcement”.  However, it’s what happened in the very next verse that began to trouble the disciples:

Mark 8:31-32
Then He began to teach them that it was necessary for the Son of Man to suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and scribes, be killed, and rise after three days.  He spoke openly about this.

Wait…what?  Imagine what the disciples were thinking…

You said we couldn’t tell anyone who you really are, but you’re PUBLICLY talking about being rejected by all of our country’s leaders, being murdered, and then coming back from the dead?  Are you serious?  Aren’t you the Messiah, the King?  Who would be blind enough to reject you?  How can you die?  What purpose would that serve?  And nobody comes back from the dead.

They murmured amongst themselves, trying to figure out what to do.  How do you correct a teacher, let alone the Messiah?  Somehow or another, either at the group’s urging or perhaps acting alone, Peter drummed up enough courage to approach Jesus.  Challenging a rabbi was risky business, a definite societal taboo.  Correcting a rabbi in public would result either in a pupil’s disgrace or embarrassment for the teacher.  They loved Jesus and didn’t want to embarrass Him, but, they thought, something needed to be said.  So Peter opted for the quieter approach:

Mark 8:32-33
Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him.  But turning around and looking at His disciples, He rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan!  You are not thinking about God’s concerns but human concerns.”

I can imagine Peter slinking back to his seat and slumping down into a heap.  Lesson learned.  Peter was the one out-of-line, not Jesus.  In that moment of attempted rebuke, Peter acted like an adversary…like a satan.  When Jesus looked at His disciples to correct Peter, His purpose was two-fold:

1.       to call Peter out for his improper motivation, short-sightedness, and ignorance of God’s plan
and
2.       to use Peter as an example to the rest of the group

Ouch. 

Reading the rest of the gospels, it’s clear that Jesus loved Peter.  However, in this moment, a biting rebuke and public embarrassment were necessary for Peter to learn to trust God’s plan…even if the plan made absolutely no sense to him.

By all indications in the text, Peter humbly accepted his lesson learned.  He didn’t lash out.  He didn’t quit following Jesus.  Peter didn’t stop hanging out with the other disciples or find another group of Jesus-followers to be a part of.

When we are faced with our own embarrassment for our improper motivation, short-sightedness, or ignorance of God’s plan…I pray that we will humbly accept the lesson that God is teaching us. 

Keep Pressing,
Ken

The MVP - conflicting interpretations

We’ve learned a lot by going through what Jesus referred to as the key parable of His teaching. 

But if you listen to different preachers or read through multiple commentaries, you’ll find that not everyone agrees when it comes to how to interpret what Jesus was trying to communicate to His disciples and those that followed Him.

Most preachers and commentators will tell you that the parable of the sower consists of 3 “bad” soils and 1 “good” soil.  They argue that no fruit or immature fruit is equal to people who profess to be Christians, but aren’t really believers because they don’t persevere or behave in a measurable “Christian” manner (and that definition is a sliding scale, depending on whom you ask).

What I’ve presented to you is that in this parable, there is 1 “non-believer” soil and 3 “believer” soils, with each believing soil have varying degrees of success in the Christian life.  In my studies for this post series, I even came across some teachers claiming the correct interpretation is half-and-half…they argue that 2 soils represent non-believers (never believed and falsely professed belief) and 2 soils represent believers (because, they argued, immature fruit is still “fruit”).

Logically, all three interpretations cannot be true.  One can be right and the others wrong, or they could all be wrong…but since they contradict each other, they cannot all be right.  That leaves us in a predicament, doesn’t it?  Whose interpretation is the right one?  Or, put more directly…Which interpretation is God’s interpretation?

Before we attempt to answer that question, let’s take this a step further…why would God even allow such varying interpretations to exist?  If this parable really is the Most Valuable Parable, why in the world would God let any of us be confused as to what He really means?

Ok, let’s all take a breath and remember…Jesus taught in parables because, while Israel thought they were ready for the Messiah, they were not ready for Jesus to be their Messiah.  Over the centuries, based upon God’s written word and the teaching of the prophets, the nation of Israel had formed a pre-conceived notion of what the Messiah would do and how he would act.  Jesus didn’t fit their expectation of who the Messiah would be…but He fit God’s definition of exactly what the world needed.

As such, Jesus taught in parables to get the people to think their way through His teachings so they could learn who He was.  And not all of His teachings were instantly understood.  After teaching the crowds the parable of the sower, even the disciples didn’t get it right away:

Luke 8:9-10
Then His disciples asked Him, “What does this parable mean?”  So He said, “The secrets of the kingdom of God have been given for you to know, but to the rest it is in parables, so that

Looking they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.

Jesus quotes a famous verse (Isaiah 6:9) from the passage where God calls Isaiah to be a prophet to the people of Israel.  Using a verse to reference the point of an entire passage was common in the ancient world, so I suggest you go back and read all of Isaiah 6 – it’s an incredible scene in the throne room of God.  Here’s a portion of it, the part where Isaiah gets his assignment from God:

Isaiah 6:9-10
And He replied:

              Go!  Say to these people: Keep listening, but do not understand;
              keep looking, but do not perceive.

              Make the minds of these people dull; deafen their ears and blind their eyes;
              otherwise they might see with their eyes and hears with their ears,
              understand with their minds, turn back, and be healed.

Jesus’ use of this passage speaks to our tendency to look for something, but not put in the continued effort to find it…or our ability to hear words but then not pursue what those words actually mean.  This was how most of Israel treated the prophet Isaiah – they heard his teaching from the Lord, but didn’t bother pursuing God to understand Him and His ways.  They decided they were tired of hearing the same thing from the Lord over and over, so they dulled their minds and stopped listening to God’s prophets.  Isaiah’s teachings were an invitation to Israel to interact with the Lord.  Jesus’ teaching through parables presented the same situation…those that wanted to follow Him, had the opportunity to ask and interact.  But Jesus didn’t force this on the crowds…they had to decide for themselves if Jesus was the Messiah.

So, where does that leave us with the parable of the sower?   While I have given you what I believe – based on my observations – is an accurate interpretation/application of The MVP, it’s up to you to decide if I’m right or not.  This is your opportunity to interact with God through the text of His Scriptures…and walk through the steps of Observation, Interpretation, and Application to find out what Jesus was really getting at here.

You have the same opportunity as the Israelites in Isaiah’s day and the crowds in Jesus’ day…investigate His teachings for yourself.  As you do so, God will remove rocks and thorns from your life so that you can be good ground…someone who endures and produces a great amount of fruit with your life.

If you would like some help learning how to navigate the steps of Observation, Interpretation, and Application, just reply to this blog post or send me a note via the contact page on the website. I’d be so happy to help you get the tools you need to read and understand God’s Word.

Keep Pressing,
Ken

The MVP - the sower

Although Jesus was Israel’s promised Savior, when He started His ministry, most of the Jewish population had the wrong idea about the coming Messiah.  Many Jews had locked in on the idea that the Messiah’s immediate plans were to conquer Israel’s enemies and set up the Kingdom of God…with Jerusalem as its capital.  Jesus knew those actions were not His mission at that time.  To get the people past this mental stumbling block, as He traveled from town to town, Jesus taught many things to the crowds that came out to meet Him.  The truth about Himself and the Kingdom of God were taught indirectly, through parable-stories.  However, the setting for these parables was always something local and familiar to His audience.

Jesus referred to The parable of the sower as the key to understanding all His parables (Mark 4:13), or as I’m calling it, The Most Valuable Parable – The MVP.  All three of the synoptic gospel writers included it, and it can be found in Matthew 13:1-23, Mark 4:1-20, and Luke 8:4-15.  Before we get to the meat of the parable; however, we need to look at the main character of the parable – the sower.  Understanding his role – in the way Jesus’ audience recognized him – will help us understand the parable as a whole.

Let’s think about the setting.  Farming was everywhere, and sowing seed in a field was a common activity.  Farmers didn’t have fancy, fast machines to spread the seed, either.  They sowed “broadcast” style…casting the seed by hand as he walked up and down the field.  The sower always spread extra seed to allow for full coverage, and he was not concerned about wasting seed.  Every inch of ground on the field was seeded in the hopes of generating the largest harvest possible.  The ideal seed depth was 1-3 inches into the ground, in favorable conditions, but that wasn’t always the case.  Terrain was often rocky and uneven, sometimes with only a thin layer of top soil.

A sower’s activities would have been something everyone would relate to because they had either done the work themselves or they had seen someone else do it.  Focus on the sower’s actions as you read through Luke’s account:

Luke 8:4-15
As a large crowd was gathering, and people were coming to Jesus from every town, He said in a parable:

”A sower went out to sow his seed.  As he sowed, some seed fell along the path; it was trampled on, and the birds of the sky devoured it.  Other seed fell on the rock; when it grew up, it withered away, since it lacked moisture.  Other seed fell among thorns; the thorns grew up with it and choked it.  Still other seed fell on good ground; when it grew up, it produced fruit: a hundred times what was sown.  As He said this He called out, “Let anyone who has ears to hear listen.”

Then His disciples asked Him, “What does this parable mean?”  So He said, “The secrets of the kingdom of God have been given for you to know, but to the rest it is in parables, so that

Looking they may not see,
and hearing they may not understand.

“This is the meaning of the parable: The seed is the word of God.  The seed along the path are those who have heard and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved.  And the seed on the rock are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy.  Having no root, these believe for a while and fall away in a time of testing.  As for the seed that fell among thorns, these are the ones who, when they have heard, go on their way and are choked with worries, riches, and pleasures of life, and produce no mature fruit.  But the seed in the good ground – these are the ones who, having heard the word with an honest and good heart, hold on to it and by enduring, produce fruit.

So what observations do you have about the sower?

Did you notice these two things?

·       The sower is not responsible for the success of the seed…his job is only to sow.
·       The sower does not pre-judge the soil’s potential or its responsiveness to the seed.  He cast the seed without discrimination or concern that it may not bear fruit or be wasted altogether.

How many times have we looked at someone and not shared the gospel because we assume they wouldn’t respond in faith?  But what we’ve seen in Jesus’ parable is that the sower spread the word of God liberally to all soils, to any ground who might receive it, instead of to just those soils sections that the sower was confident to get a fruitful harvest.

This would have been an encouragement to the disciples and should also encourage us as we encounter opportunities to sow God’s word.  We may not see immediate harvest-results.  The sower certainly didn’t.  Harvest comes later…and the sower may not even be the one to participate in that event.  But that doesn’t matter when it’s time to sow. 

So let’s be faithful and sow as we have opportunity.  Not because we think the person is worthy to hear about the gospel, but because that is the task God has given us to do.

Keep Pressing,
Ken

The MVP - The Most Valuable Parable

Have you ever wondered why Jesus told so many stories?  Or, better yet, why did He tell so many strange stories?

Jesus taught in parable-stories to stimulate a person’s thinking about His truths.  I once heard a parable described as “an earthly story with a heavenly meaning”.  I think that’s a pretty accurate definition.  While some of the parables’ context might seem weird to us, the settings were culturally relevant and understandable to Jesus’ audiences.  This means that we can learn the same lessons Jesus taught, but we need to use our observation skills so we don’t misunderstand first century cultural references.

By teaching in parables, Jesus gave the people a choice to either learn more or walk away.  One of Jesus’ favorite phrases to end a parable illustrates this: “He who as ears to hear, listen!”  However, the crowds were not generally given the meaning of a parable, but the disciples and others who followed Him were.  

Also keep in mind that as Jesus and the disciples traveled from town to town, He would have taught the same parables in each location.  With no internet, email, TV, or radio available, each town was a new place that hadn’t heard these truths yet.  Think about it…the disciples would have heard the parables multiple times and probably could recite them all by heart.  The writers of all four gospels didn’t include every teaching of Jesus, instead they chose to include events, miracles, and parables that fit the purpose/narrative/audience of their gospel.  As such, we need to pay attention if a particular parable is included by more than one of them.

The parable we are going to look at is one of those parables.  It is often referred to by one of two names:  The parable of the soils or The parable of the sower.  It can be found in Matthew 13:1-23, Mark 4:1-20, and Luke 8:4-15.  For starters, we’re going to look at Mark’s account:

Mark 4:1-13
Again He began to teach by the sea, and a very large crowd gathered around Him.  So He got into a boat on the sea and sat down, while the whole crowd was by the sea on the shore.  He taught them many things in parables, and in His teaching He said to them:

“Listen!  Consider the sower who went out to sow.  As he sowed, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it.  Other seed fell on rocky ground where it didn’t have much soil, and it grew up quickly, since the soil wasn’t deep.  When the sun came up, it was scorched, and since it had no root, it withered away.  Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns came up and choked it, and it didn’t produce fruit.  Still other seed fell on good ground and it grew up, producing fruit that increased thirty, sixty, and a hundred times.”  Then He said, “Let anyone who has ears to hear listen.”

When He was alone, those around Him with the Twelve, asked Him about the parables.  He answered them, “The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but to those outside, everything comes in parables so that
              they may indeed look, and yet not perceive;
              they may indeed listen, and yet not understand;
              otherwise, they might turn back and be forgiven.

The He said to them: “Don’t you understand this parable?  How then will you understand all of the parables?

So we see from Mark’s account that Jesus considers this story to be the master parable, or what I’d like to call The Most Valuable Parable – The MVP.  As such, we must make sure that we understand exactly what Jesus was teaching the crowds whenever He taught this parable.  If we get this one wrong, we could end up misinterpreting His other parables…and it is impossible to correctly apply what we do not correctly understand.

Since the gospel writers included this story, you and I are being included in Jesus’ inner circle.  We are going to be privy to insider information here!

But as good Bible students, we must make sure we approach the passage without any pre-conceived notions or assumptions.  We must let the text speak for itself.  It’s easy to slip into the attitude of The parable of the sower?  I know that one and what it means.

Additionally, I think a number of others have not correctly understood Jesus’ message here; but we’ll get to that as we go through each part of the parable and match it up with Jesus’ explanation. 

But we have the same choice Jesus’ first century listeners had – will we lean in and learn more, or will we walk away, assuming we already know what Jesus meant with this parable?

Keep Pressing,
Ken